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The Living Politics of Self-Help Movements in East Asia PDF

246 Pages·2018·3.51 MB·English
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THE LIVING POLITICS OF SELF-HELP MOVEMENTS IN EAST ASIA Edited by TOM CLIFF TESSA MORRIS-SUZUKI SHUGE WEI The Living Politics of Self-Help Movements in East Asia Tom Cliff • Tessa Morris-Suzuki Shuge Wei Editors The Living Politics of Self-Help Movements in East Asia Editors Tom Cliff Tessa Morris-Suzuki Australian National University Australian National University Canberra, Australia Canberra, Australia Shuge Wei Australian National University Canberra, Australia ISBN 978-981-10-6336-7 ISBN 978-981-10-6337-4 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6337-4 Library of Congress Control Number: 2017958003 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifcally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microflms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specifc statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the pub- lisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institu- tional affliations. Cover illustration: LockieCurrie Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21- 01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore Preface and acknowledgements Since 2013, our research group, based at the Australian National University, has been exploring the quiet ways in which groups of ordinary people across East Asia are addressing social problems and improving their lives through self-help action. Members of the team have traveled to com- munities in Inner and Outer Mongolia, China, Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea, meeting a remarkable range of people who are experimenting with their own forms of everyday politics. Some of the participants in these local experiments have also joined international workshops or conferences that we have run here in Australia, and through our website and confer- ences, we are seeking to create networks that will help the practitioners of informal life politics across the region to learn about and from one another. Our research has made us conscious of common patterns that link these informal life politics actions, even though the participants are based in communities far distant from one another and are citizens of countries with radically divergent formal political systems. In this book, we explore these common threads, painting a picture of a form of political action which is often ignored by scholars, but which, we argue, is having a pro- found impact on the life of the region. The cases we explore here are not simple success stories. Many of the groups whose work is discussed in the chapters that follow have faced, and continue to face, external and internal challenges. But their persistence, creativity, and imagination, we argue, offer inspiration for others and hope for the future. This book links case study chapters with a series of “concept essays,” which draw out key themes for understanding the processes of living poli- tics. We hope that these will contribute to wider future discussion and v vi PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS study of this phenomenon in East Asia and beyond. The cases we have studied pose important questions about our understanding of the very meaning of “politics” itself. Our aim, in responding to those questions, is to open up space for a wider reimagining of the meaning of political life in the twenty-frst-century world. The editors and authors express their deep gratitude to the Australian Research Council, which has supported this research through its Laureate Fellowship program (project FL120100155—Informal Life Politics in the Remaking of Northeast Asia: From Cold War to post-Cold War). We also warmly thank our fellow project members Eun Jeong Soh and Robert Winstanley-Chesters, who have contributed greatly to the development of our ideas about informal life politics in the region, and express particular thanks to the project’s research assistant and administrator, Hanbyol Lee. This research, of course, would not have been possible without the kind- ness and cooperation of many people in Beijing, South Korea, Inner Mongolia, Okinawa and other parts of Japan, and Taiwan, who generously shared their time, experiences, and ideas with us. We express our gratitude to all of them, and to our partners and families who have shared this jour- ney of discovery with us. contents 1 I ntroduction: Living Politics—Social Alternatives and  the Crisis of Democracy 1 Tessa Morris-Suzuki and Shuge Wei Part I Citizenships 15 2 C oncept Essay One: Ignoring the Attention-S eeking State 17 Tom Cliff 3 S urvival as Citizenship, or Citizenship as Survival? Imagined and Transient Political Groups in Urban China 29 Tom Cliff and Kan Wang 4 S elf-Help Is Political: How Organic Farming Creates an Autonomous Space Within the South Korean Nation State 57 Yon Jae Paik vii viii CONTENTS Part II Networks 97 5 C oncept Essay Two: Leveraging Informal Networks for Survival Politics 99 Uchralt Otede 6 I nformal Grassland Protection Networks in Inner Mongolia 107 Uchralt Otede 7 F orest, Music, and Farming: The Takae Anti-H elipad Movement and Everyday Life as Political Space 131 Shinnosuke Takahashi Part III Alternatives 151 8 C oncept Essay Three: Alternative Value Creation 153 Shuge Wei and Tessa Morris-Suzuki 9 T he Dilemmas of Peach Blossom Valley: The Resurgence of Rice-Terrace Farming in Gongliao District, Taiwan 163 Shuge Wei 1 0 T he Neverending Story: Alternative Exchange and  Living Politics in a Japanese Regional Community 189 Tessa Morris-Suzuki 1 1 Epilogue: Improvising the Future 215 Tessa Morris-Suzuki and Shuge Wei B ibliography 219 I ndex 235 list of figures Fig. 3.1 Industrial alleyway in Picun Village. Photograph © Tom Cliff 2013 33 Fig. 3.2 The New Workers’ Theatre in Picun Village. Photograph © Tom Cliff 2013 37 Image 6.1 Landscape of Mandahbulag pasture during the winter. Photograph © Uchralt Otede 112 Fig. 6.1 Informal network of Eastern Ujimchin Educated Youth 119 Image 6.2 Well-water sampling on the grassland. Photograph © Uchralt Otede 125 Fig. 6.2 The informal grassland protection network 125 Image 7.1 Local residents and supporters barricading a gate to Yanbaru Forest with cars, tents, and net to block the offcers from Okinawa Defense Bureau (white helmets, right hand side of image). Police offcers (dark clothing, left hand side of image) also monitored protesters with video cameras. Photograph © Shinnosuke Takahashi 136 Image 7.2 Local resident Miyagi Katsumi (left) and a supporter who is a rock musician from Kyoto Prefecture (right). The musician brought a banner with supportive messages from his fellow rock musicians and fans as a symbol of solidarity with Takae people. Photograph © Shinnosuke Takahashi 145 Image 9.1 Rice-terrace farming, Gongliao 164 Image 9.2 Display of local farming tools at the Hehe stone room 177 Image 9.3 Children play in the Hehe rice paddies 179 ix x LIST OF FIGURES Image 10.1 Ma~yu members, with passbooks in hand, trading goods at the monthly market. Photograph © Tessa Morris-Suzuki 198 Image 10.2 Ma~yu members gather in front of Everybody’s House. Photograph © Tessa Morris-Suzuki 201 Image 10.3 Old houses line a street on the fringe of Ueda City. Photograph © Tessa Morris-Suzuki 203

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